On Wed, 05 Oct 2022 10:59:47 -0400 The Wanderer <wande...@fastmail.fm> wrote:
> > Sorry, must have missed the memo that made an apparently-typo-ed > > double question mark into an emoticon. > > It's not an emoticon. There is a convention, which if I'm not mistaken > goes back decades and originates well before emoticons (and perhaps > even *icons* in anything like the modern sense) were ever a thing, > that "??" indicates not just a question but one asked with an air of > incredulity. Chess notation (specifically descriptive notation, for the pedantic) uses one to three question marks to indicate incredulity, and one to three exclamation points (!) to indicate surprise, or compliment the player on a really good move. Those conventions go back at least to the mid-19th century. Before anyone protests that he doesn't play chess, so I shouldn't expect him to know this, I don't. This is explanatory. He has the opportunity to learn something. -- Does anybody read signatures any more? https://charlescurley.com https://charlescurley.com/blog/